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REVISED 2015 THE PROJECT DIVA

Application
Development
Project Plan Template

[This project plan template is intended to be used as a guide for planning and managing real world software
development projects. This plan is not a real plan and should not be used without modifications required for your
unique project.

Table of Contents
1

Overview........................................................................................................ 3
1.1 Project Objectives....................................................................................... 4
1.2 Project Constraints...................................................................................... 4
1.3 Project Risks............................................................................................... 4

Proposed Solution.......................................................................................... 5
2.1 Business Requirements............................................................................... 5
2.2 Architecture................................................................................................ 6
2.3 Development.............................................................................................. 6
2.4 Testing........................................................................................................ 6
2.5 Deployment................................................................................................ 8

Project Resources........................................................................................... 8
3.1 Roles and Responsibilities...........................................................................8
3.2 Issue Escalation.......................................................................................... 8
3.3 Project Staffing Plan.................................................................................... 8
3.4 Project Materials......................................................................................... 8

Project Approach............................................................................................ 9
4.1 Development Model.................................................................................... 9
4.2 Configuration Management........................................................................9
4.3 Communication Management...................................................................10
4.4 Change Management................................................................................ 10
4.5 Testing...................................................................................................... 10
4.6 Documentation......................................................................................... 10

Estimate....................................................................................................... 11

Schedule...................................................................................................... 11

Copyright 2008 The Project Diva | Overview

Overview

The intent of this document is to provide a sample application development project

plan. The scope of this document covers the project planning phase and
demonstrates how a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and associated Resource
Breakdown Structure might be incorporated into key project documents. This
document also provides a possible structure for presenting:

Project deliverables
Project risks and opportunities
Estimates
Project resource information
Project delivery method
Configuration and change management

A project manager would generally use this section of the document to provide an
overview of the entire project.
Need for project
This section discusses why the project is being undertaken. There are many
reasons for undertaking a project, including:

Legislative or legal requirements (e.g. Sarbanes-Oxley)

Competitive advantage
Cost savings
Benefit to your customers

Challenges
What known challenges will impact project planning and execution? These might
include:

Unresolved disparity in stakeholder requirements or expectations

Unknown lead/delivery timeframe for a key project component (this would
directly impact the scheduling critical path)
Unknown technical or other method of implementation (e.g. the technology
required for the project is new or as of yet fully developed)
Project staff will require substantial training in order to complete project
tasks

Opportunities
By implementing the project, what specific opportunities become available? For
example:

The software might enable trading in new financial markets, providing an

opportunity to acquire new customers and earn additional revenue
Copyright 2008 The Project Diva | Overview

The resulting product may be deployable to other customers

1.1 Project Objectives

This section should specifically list project objectives. These are the criteria which
will be used to measure project success. For example:

Complete application implementation by the end of FY 2009

Provide a centralized management system of all customer related data,
including billing, order and payment history and correspondence
Provide a method of automatically distributing reports to select user groups
Establish standards, implementation and management guidelines and project
templates for subsequent software application deployment projects

1.2 Project Constraints

Project restraints are typically related to quality, scope, budget and timeframe.
Known specific constraints must be fully documented as early in the project
planning process as possible. All stakeholders need to be made aware of these
constraints, as they may pose an adverse risk to successful project completion.

1.3 Project Risks

This section of the document needs to identify and qualify all project risks. At the
very least, the following should be documented in the project plan:

Event Risk -- What is the risk?

Risk Probability -- How likely is the risk event to happen?
Risk Impact -- What will happen if the risk is actualized?
Risk Mitigation -- What can be done to reduce the probably of the risk
occurring?
Contingency Plan -- What can be done to reduce the impact of the risk?

Risk Probability
Risk probability analysis involves measuring the likelihood that an event will be
actualized. Probability analysis usually includes quantification and assignment of a
particular probability value (e.g. high, medium, low).
Risk Impact
It is important to be specific when defining the potential impacts associated with
each particular risk. If, for example, the impact of a particular risk would be cost
overruns, then a statement providing an estimated value would be more beneficial
to the risk planning process. Impact analysis also generally includes quantification.
The combined values of total probability and impact for a particular risk determine
the overall risk for any particular risk element. This enables project stakeholders to
properly weight and prioritize risk in a project.
Risk Mitigation
Copyright 2008 The Project Diva | Overview

The purpose of risk mitigation is to reduce the probability that a particular risk even
will occur. Risks with a higher probability and greater impact should be addressed
first. For example, a major project risk could be delay in delivery of the production
platform. This could be mitigated by earlier ordering of the hardware.
Contingency Plan
The purpose of a contingency plan is to reduce the impact of a risk that has been
actualized. An example of a contingency plan might be to provide the customer
with temporary hardware should the production hardware not arrive as scheduled.

Proposed Solution

Provide an executive summary of the proposed solution here. Documenting the

proposed solution is straightforward if you have created a deliverable oriented Work
Breakdown Structure (WBS). A sample application development WBS is provided as
a separate document, along with other TheProjectDiva.com application
development sample project documents.

2.1 Business Requirements

Using the deliverable oriented WBS, the business requirements deliverables for this
example application development process would include details listed below. For
this example, both the process for gathering business requirements as well as the
resulting knowledge is documented for customer review.
Evaluate existing processes
What was done to understand the clients business? This might include interviewing
users regarding their current roles, existing processes, known issues, planned
improvements or organizational changes and their overall understanding of the
planned project. Evaluating requirements may also entail reviewing reports, legacy
applications and data sources, financial statements, business or trading partner
requirements or regulatory issues..
Specific findings which may impact project constraints or pose a risk should be
documented. These might include:

Users update multiple data stores with duplicated information. Data is often
out of synch. The data will need to be synchronized before being migrated.
This will require a substantial amount of application down time for the
existing financial reporting application.
Existing data stores span multiple platforms. Legacy data migration will
require more time than originally anticipated.
Integration with legacy accounting package is required. Accounting package
has not been patched or updated in several years. Newer software versions
are available from the vendor. A series of upgrades will be required before
the accounting package can be integrated with the planned application. This
will require substantial effort and should be considered as a separate project.

Copyright 2008 The Project Diva | Overview

Define new business rules and workflow

After reviewing existing processes and soliciting feedback from users and
stakeholders, the business analyst needs to document all of the rules and process
improvements that will be captured by the application development project.
Business rules would include calculations and logic. Workflow generally involves the
relationships between objects, departments, user roles or components. Rules and
workflow will form the basis of the application architecture and should be
documented in detail.
Define specific User Interface (UI) requirements
The interface is the first application component that users experience. If the users
are unsatisfied with the interface, then regardless of whether or not the underlying
business logic and workflow meet project requirements, the project will not be a
success. It is absolutely essential to involve users in the project as a whole and the
interface in particular as early in the project as is possible.
Define specific technology requirements
This section of the project plan would define the technologies required for
developing, supporting and maintaining the application.

2.2 Architecture
This section of the document provides the technical blueprint of the application.
Expect to use mock-up screenshots, sample designs, diagrams, workflow models
(e.g. UML) and considerable detail in describing exactly how the application is going
to work.
Functional Specifications
Functional specifications include details regarding how the application will interface
with, for example, legacy applications, provide database models and describe the
relationships between the different data entities, and detail how each component of
the application interacts with every other component.
Technical Specifications
Technical specifications might include the following:

Network Diagrams
Platform specifications
Development languages
Peripheral specifications

Security Specifications
If security is integral to the application being developed, then consider a specific
section to document the security specifications relating to the application and
supporting infrastructure.

2.3 Development
This section of the document would describe the features to be included in each
release or phase of the development process.
Copyright 2008 The Project Diva | Overview

2.4 Testing
This section describes both he overall approach to testing as well as provides details
on what will be tested, when the testing will occur and who will be responsible for
the testing.
Software development is an iterative process, and is tested constantly. That said,
only the testing process need be documented, especially if the testing requires
client interaction or includes a formal feedback and bug reporting process.
Details regarding the formal feedback process should also be documented in this
section. A sample bug tracking form can be provided. If you have access to web
based bug tracking software, then the client should be informed that such tracking
will be done electronically.

2.5 Deployment
Major Milestones
This section should be used to define project milestones. Milestones are often times
linked to a contract payment schedule. If this is the case for your project, then the
milestones should be referenced in the payment schedule section of the project
contract.

Project Resources

3.1 Roles and Responsibilities

This section of the project plan should define the various roles and responsibilities of
the members of the project team. Also consider including their level of authority
within their scope of responsibility (e.g. approve, support, or conduct).
If staffing is subject to change, then it is important to note that here.

3.2 Issue Escalation

Project problems need to be resolved quickly. If no resolution can be made
regarding the conflict, then the project manager and the client will need a path to
escalate and manage issues.

3.3 Project Staffing Plan

The project staffing plan lists the human resources and skill sets that will be
required to complete the project. An application development project will usually
require: project management and planning, systems design, business and technical
analysis, programming, testing, documentation, network engineering, and training.
Each skill set would be listed with a detailed description of the role.
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Also consider including the Resource Breakdown Structure in this section of the
project plan document. This provides a basis for cost estimating and is fundamental
to understanding resource allocation during the course of the project.

3.4 Project Materials

What other materials are required to complete the project? For most application
development projects, this would include hardware, physical networking
infrastructure, peripherals, co-location space and licensing.

Copyright 2008 The Project Diva | Overview

Project Approach

4.1 Development Model

This section describes the application development to be used (e.g. Microsoft
Solutions Framework, rapid application development, agile development). These
methodologies are complimentary to standard Project management Institute (PMI)
methodologies.
It is important to also describe the various stages or phases of development and
detail which components or milestones will be delivered during each phase.

4.2 Configuration Management

Configuration management plans usually define what items need to be controlled in
a project software , the various releases, hardware platforms and environments,
and documents. Specifically, the following should be included:
Components
This section should list the specific tasks and items that need to be controlled
during the course of the project. Examples may include:

Build project baseline

Implement code library system
Define audit team
Track changes in project baseline

Tools
This section describes the tools or techniques used in executing the configuration
management processes. These may include, for example, software or code library
management systems or forms and documents (e.g. change control submission,
analysis and approval documentation)
Reporting
This section describes the reports issued by the project team and may include:

Change History
Release status reports
Project Baseline analysis reports
Audit data

Archiving
Define what should be archived and the length of archival time.
Archive Control and Audit Review
Copyright 2008 The Project Diva | Overview

4.3 Communication Management

A communications management plan defines how information will flow throughout
the duration of the project. This can include specific requirements, such as access
to a satellite phone should project members be out of cell range, as well as specific
documents or correspondence formats that are required for the project. The plan
should detail who is responsible for distributing what information, how often the
information needs to be distributed, and to whom the information will be sent. This
can include, for example, a schedule for team meetings and a list of the team
members required to attend or a status report distribution list with proposed
reporting format.

4.4 Change Management

All projects must deal with changes, either anticipated and planned or unexpected.
A formal change management policy is designed to specifically address planned
changes to evaluate their impact of the existing project schedule and budget and to
provide accountability and ownership changes. Each project will have different
change management requirements. Nearly all such management policies, however,
need to include:

Name of change initiator

Documentation regarding the nature of the change
Change impact analysis
Change rejection / approval

The Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) development process integrates change

management into the core development methodology. It is important that clients
understand the change management process, especially considering the impact of
change on the project schedule and budget.

4.5 Testing
A testing plan is usually developed as part of the functional specification phase of
the development project. This provides for a detailed test plan, as the analysts
developers understand more about the components that will require testing.
Testing should be done both in a test environment and also within the intended
production environment. This will minimize issues associated with configuration
variances.
This section should provide details associated with the test process: the project role
(and individual, if a specific person has been identified) responsible for testing,
other human resource requirements and a schedule for testing (or associated
milestones).
If an application will be used to track bugs or provide testing feedback to the
development and management group, then this should be documented here as
well. Otherwise, feedback documentation should be provided in the project plan.

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4.6 Documentation
This section details what documentation will be delivered during both the course of
the project and at project end. Clients are usually most interested in system
administrator and user documented. It is important to document how the
information will be provided in electronic, physical media format or perhaps both.
Documentation is a project deliverable, just like the User Interface. Expect to
provide clients with several versions for review.

Estimate

This section should be used to detail the projects cost estimate. There are many
methods to estimating project costs. All methods require basic information relating
to scope, timeframe for delivery and resources available. In the associated
TheProjectDiva.com application development sample project documents, a cost
estimate is provided. This estimate uses input data from the Work Breakdown
Structure to create a Resource e Breakdown Structure document. It is this Resource
Breakdown document which provides the basis of the cost estimating template.

Schedule

The project schedule can be completed only after all project tasks have been
defined and prioritized. The schedule is one of the last components of a project
plan to be completed.

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